OT: Umbilical hernia surgery

[holliscx]

My daughter is almost 4. Her belly button has protruded a little bit since birth. The doctors told us it's a hernia and that it will require surgery by age 5 if it doesn't go away.

[earlfoss]

I thought I'd resurrect this thread to include my recent experience with umbilical hernia surgery.

I'd had an umbilical hernia forever, it had been a very small one with fat incarcerated in it. The fat was stable, and the hernia was never an issue from my childhood through about a month ago. As you get older, these things tend to get bigger!

During a team training trip to the LA area, the fat decided to become mobile through the hole in my abdomen. We were rolling back to Venice and I felt a bit of abdominal fat pass through the hole and protrude a bit. It was disgusting!

I got back to the house and if I wasn't 100% sure it was a hernia, the feeling of pushing it back in sealed the deal. I pressed on it, and it resisted briefly before squishing back in. Again, disgusting. At this point I wasn't sure if it was fat or intestine, so I just kept my fingers crossed. I figured that if it was intestine I'd be having some pretty gnarly issues that weren't currently happening.

Went to dinner, passed out at the restaurant. Combination of a big training day, and thinking about the feeling of pushing that thing back into my body had me on the ropes. Disappointed I wasn't able to finish my Manhattan that night!

Finished the training trip (4 more days), lots of miles on the bike, lots of climbing. I had to push the hernia back in a few times. Once on a 50mph descent which was an interesting experience.

The day after I got home to Wisconsin, went to the clinic and got referred to the surgeon. He looked at it and yup, let's operate.

Up to this point I have been training 12-18hrs/week in preparation for racing season, so that's the last thing I want to hear.

Last Wednesday was the surgery date. The procedure was performed at 9:30 am, and was out of there by 1:30pm. Easy peasy. The surgeon said that mine was at the ideal stage for repair. Less than 2 cm, and only needed 4 stitches to be closed up. No need for mesh. The incision below my belly button is less than 1/2 inch. Now I read a lot of back and forth on mesh vs. suture (tension) repair, and it seems that most opinion leans toward mesh as a primary repair technique, but I defer to my surgeon's experience with these things. I did let him know to repair it well as I am an extremely active athlete. In any case, the surgeon said the repair was as easy as they get, and recovery should be a bit quicker than usual due to the size of the repair and the amount of work needed to access it.

Post-op, pain has been manageable. I have had to take it easy the past 4 days which is not my style but I know what's good for me. Was on Vicodin days 1 and 2, but transitioned to Tylenol and am now taking it as needed maybe 1 dose a day. I enjoy random testicular pain like someone is shooting me with a bb gun. That's not fun, but is lessening. General anesthesia and Vicodin put my digestive tract to sleep, so day 2 required some magnesium citrate for motivation. Motivate it did. To the max.

Sleeping sucks. It's hard to find a comfortable position, and once I find it I stay in it all night. I tend to move around in my sleep so that's an adjustment to deal with. Laying on my back, there's less tension on my stomach than when on my side. However, I can feel the repair moving around the layers surrounding it and it's not the best thing to feel and think about as you try to go to sleep.

I was told that I should take it easy for 1-2 weeks post surgery. The sutures are strong, but the tissue is currently weakened and that's where the risk of further damage lies. I plan to hop on the trainer on Monday very briefly to test the waters. I'm not planning to do much more than a short and easy spin, but it should help me estimate where I am and how much I can expect to handle in the coming days. I'll give myself until 2 weeks out to push the envelope a little, and with any luck I'll be close to 100% by week 4.

While not super ideal timing-wise, in the big picture the repair was a good idea. It wouldn't be fun to have a hernia pop out while contesting a sprint! This situation will probably keep me from overtraining myself anyway ha ha ha. But for real, there's no mercy in spring P1/2 races. Everyone here comes in hot, and to start the season on the back foot is not a good thing. I had to do that at the beginning of the 2017 season and it took until June to start getting back to normal and winning races again. I know it will be a-ok in the end, so I deal with it mentally.

That's a bit of a tome, but hopefully it's helpful to someone here.

[kevinvc]

I had forgotten how rough my recovery was until re-reading this thread. I was definitely an outlier for a very simple procedure.

Sorry to hear you had to have the surgery, but it sounds like you're already on the mend. All I would say as advice is to listen to your body (and your doctor). Most folks are able to be active within a couple of weeks. I took a lot longer and think it was probably a good thing I didn't push it. My recovery was eventually complete and I never even think about it anymore.

Good luck with your healing.